Blades and Love
by Rei Ronin
Summary: First there was the project. Then came the breakdown of the world order. As each NERV city carves out its own little niche of the world, the EVA team reunites. What will happen? Semi-AU, crossover fic with Rurouni Kenshin. RK EVA combat!
1. The project

Just a work of fanfiction. I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or Rurouni Kenshin. I am just using the ideas and characters of such. Please refrain from suing.

"Class, today we will be learning about a very special period in Japan's history…"

_Whoopee! _thought class 2-A, _More Second Impact!_

"The Bakamatsu."

"WHAT!?" They were actually going to learn about something other than Second Impact? Hell yeah! Even Rei Ayanami was looking at the teacher.

"In the year Genji 1, or 1864, Kyoto, home of the Choshu clan, was beset by a rash of killings. In each case, a Shogunate official, a samurai, was killed during the night, along with the bodyguards he might have with him. These killings were attributed to a hitokiri, whose only recorded name is Battousai. This is obviously a professional name. He was obviously working for revolutionary elements in the Choshu clan. But after an attack on a revolutionary meeting in Kyoto by a group know as the Shinsengumi, the killings stop. Soon, a group called the Kihei-tai, lead by a man called Tasugi, rises and fights the Shogunate army in Kyoto. During the fighting, Kyoto is burned to the ground. Purges sweep through the Choshu clan and, for a year, there is very little revolutionary activity. At the end of that year, a Shogunate trap to kill the Battousai is sprung. Three Niuwaban-shu ninja are killed along with the Shogunate field chief who set the trap up.

"Not a month after this, the revolutionaries, lead by the reemergence of the Kihei-tai, sweep across much of Japan. The forces of the so-called 'patriots' are led by Tasugi, and Kogoro Katsura, the disgraced leader of the Choshu clan. Though hitokiri-linked killings are rampant, the Hitokiri Battousai is never involved. He becomes a guardian angel for revolutionary forces and a great power when he is used as a front-line soldier. During this time period, we finally get a good description of the man known as Battousai. He was a short man of maybe 18-20 years old, with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek and red hair. He is described as very good looking. His fighting style was identified as Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, a style apparently founded during the Sengoku period. It was said that it pitted 'one against many', and was considered to be the most powerful form of kenjutsu. In any case, it let him "slay men like a demon", to quote a historian of the period. Interestingly, at the end of the revolution, Battousai, disappears without a trace.

"You are probably wondering why I am telling you about this. Battousai, I told you about as he is considered by many to be the most interesting and important figure of the revolution. The Bakamatsu, as we will be doing a project. You will be split up into pairs. Each pair will then be given a subject relating to the Bakamatsu, and the first ten years of Meji. You will, in two months time, give us an interesting and informative presentation on your subject. That means, no standing up in front of the class and talking. We will want something creative for full marks. During this one month, you will not be required to come to school." The jaws of the class dropped open. "But at the end of the two months, for two weeks, we will have one presentation a day. This grade is very important, and if you fail, you will most likely fail the semester."

The class started murmuring nervously. "Sensei, when was this approved?"

"At the beginning of the quarter Ms. Horaki. Now, after lunch I will assign you groups, but now, I believe, it is time for lunch."

The bell rang and the class filed out. As surprising as everything in class had been, the thoughts of the elderly teacher would've given the class a heart attack. _I'm glad I finally got a proposal past those censors. I'm fucking tired of talking about Second Impact! Nice of that Katsuragi woman. I wonder about her 'conditions' though._

"Wow," said Kensuke as he and Shinji sat down to eat lunch. "Can you believe it? A two-month project. And not about Second Impact. I wonder what I'll do mine on?"

"And who with?" asked Shinji.

"Yeah, that too. Say, what happened to the demon? I haven't seen her in a week."

"She got sent to NERV Berlin for six months."

"Why?"

"I don't know, and neither does Misato."

"You want me to find out?"

"Nah."

"What? Shinji, don't you want to know why your girlfriend got sent away?"

Shinji sighed. "Kensuke, we broke up a week ago."

"Oh…I didn't know."

Shinji shook his head. "No reason for you to. We didn't really tell anyone if they didn't ask."

"Oh. Why, if you don't mind?"

Shinji shook his head. "Maybe in a while, but not now." Shinji hadn't been entirely truthful in that conversation. He knew exactly why Asuka had left, but he wasn't telling why. The files said it was to expand protection against the Angels, but that was complete BS. After the Ninth Angel, the Angels had simply stopped coming. After half a year, Gendo Ikari had committed suicide. No reason was ever found. Evangelion production continued nonetheless, giving each major city (city with a NERV base) an Evangelion. Only four places had multiples: Tokyo-3 (00, 01), Berlin (02, MP11), the Massachusetts facility (03, MP16), and the Arizona facility (04, MP07). The UN became an almost world government.

Just before their breakup, Asuka had requested a transfer back to Germany. NERV Berlin was delighted to get one of the original combat pilots and immediately approved the request. Shinji and Asuka had ended their relationship just before she left. And she wasn't coming back after six months either.

Kensuke's voice jolted him out of his reverie. "I wish Touji would sit with us, at least some of the time."

"We could go over to them, you know."

"I just never know what to say to him when he's near Hikari. He's like a different person."

"Yeah. They'll probably get married."

"Well, they'll be happy."

"Heh. So what do you want to do?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe something about the weapons during that time period."

"Military otaku."

"Always have been. Actually, I'd like to do something on pirates during that time period."

"You can hope."

"I dropped hints about pirates all school year. He'll probably give it to me," said Kensuke, grinning. "What do you want to do?"

"Huh. I don't know. Maybe something about the food then, or the culture?"

"Asuka was right. House-broken male."

"Sheesh," said Shinji, eating some of the sushi he had taken the extra time to make. "Least I can cook for myself. Without the microwave." He added before Kensuke said it.

"Instant food is the ambrosia of the gods."

Shinji shuddered. "Right." He finished off his sushi. "We'd better get heading back."

Kensuke scarfed down the last of his bento box. "Okay."

"Kensuke Adia and Mana Kirishma, you will be doing a report on pirate groups during the Genji and early Meji years."

Kensuke looked over at Shinji and mouthed 'I told you so.' 

"Touji Suzuhara and Hikari Horaki, you will be working on foods and dress of the period. And finally, Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari will be working on fighting styles."

Shinji's eyes bugged. Fighting styles! What did he know about…never mind. And he supposed it would be nice to talk to Rei again. They were…had been fairly good friends, but Asuka had taken up so much of his time…he could hardly be blamed.

"Now, get into your groups and start brainstorming. If you want to consult with me on something after today, just come to school, but for the most part, anything goes." 

As everyone got up to work with their partners, Shinji walked over to Rei. "Hello, Rei."

"Hello, Shinji."

"Rei, gomen nasai."

She looked at him inquisitively.

"I haven't been talking to you much lately. Gomen."

She shook her head, almost imperceptibly. Shinji, out of long experience, could read her body language and facial expressions, and caught it. "You had your reasons. There is nothing to apologize for."

"Thank you," mumbled Shinji. Rei was understanding like that. "So what should we do our project on?"

"Fighting styles," stated Rei bluntly.

"Not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"Well, we might want to restrict our research to one weapon."

"What about the sword?" suggested the sensei, standing behind them.

"What do you mean?" asked Shinji.

"The dai-sho set of the samurai," clarified the teacher, "And possibly kempo."

"Sir?" asked Rei.

"This project was approved by Ms. Katsuragi. She asked that I put you two together as her conditions. I decided that you two should be assigned a project related to your job. Hence, fighting styles. I suggest you two learn kempo, along with a sword style of your choosing, and give us a demonstration after telling us about some common sword styles."

Rei considered this for a moment. "Acceptable. What do you think of the teacher's recommendation?"

Shinji stared. _She's going to kick my ass in that demonstration. But Misato has been asking me to take self-defense classes, and I suppose I could do with being less helpless. _"Sure."

The sensei handed them a book on sword styles "Here, this should help you."

"Sensei?" asked Shinji, "Why are you helping us?"

"Gratitude, I suppose," said the old man, "I hate talking about Second Impact."

The class thought they'd never see Rei Ayanami faint. They were wrong.

"Rei, are you alright?"

Rei opened her eyes to see Shinji's concerned face. "Fine."

"That's good. You remember what happened today?"

"Yes. I would never had thought he had disliked talking about Second Impact."

"I know. I just woke up a few minutes ago." Shinji held up the book the sensei had given them. "I flipped through this, and it's got a bunch of good stuff." He looked into the book. "Tenshen Rishen-ryu, Jigen-ryu, there's even styles for strange swords in here." 

"Very good. How are we going to learn sword styles? There are no teachers of kenjutsu in Tokyo-3."

"Company town," muttered Shinji. "I'll ask Misato about that. I'll call you if we find anything."

"I will keep my cell phone on. Good day, Shinji."

"Goodbye, Rei."

"Huh," mused Misato, "That teacher of yours has a point. You sure you want to do this?"

"Not really, but it would be a good idea, right?"

"Yeah, it would be. Though I personally find it unlikely that there'll be any more Angels, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn some advanced combat skills. Nothing like job security, eh Shinji?"

Shinji gave a small smile. He was set for life as the pilot of Unit-01. "Yeah. It is nice, isn't it?" Misato was also set.

"Well, I'll see about finding you two teachers. Kaji can teach you kempo."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he's pretty good. You two want to learn different sword styles, right?"

"I guess." 

"And I'll try to find a place close to Tokyo-3, where you two can train in separate styles near to each other. I think I can do that. Go call Rei."

"Right."

AN: Due to my love of NGE and RK, and the severe lack of crossover between the two (I have only seen one), I am trying my hand at one. No definite pairing yet, outside of the Hikari/Touji that was implied during this chapter (and even that might change). But it looks like due to the story's plot it will be Rei/Shinji. We'll see. This is set in an AU. After the Ninth Angel, the Angels stopped. Gendo has committed suicide, and the UN has become a world government, with NERV and governmental militaries as it's peacekeeping force. Other changes are described in story. The main characters are 15 now.


	2. 1 day after kempo

Work of fanfiction. Please do not sue

Blades and Love 

"Dear lord, you two learn fast," said Kaji at the end of the week that they had been training with him. He was sporting just as many bruises as Rei and Shinji were, a testament to how quickly they had learned what he knew. "I don't have anything left to teach you two. You guys should go and do some research on sword styles, before you go off to train in swords."

"Thanks, Kaji."

"Thank you, Mr. Kaji."

As they walked out the door Kaji thought to himself, _Note to self: Never piss Shinji or Rei off again. They'll kick your ass. _ 

"Want to get something to eat, Rei?"

"Yes. I am rather hungry."

"Ramen sound good?"

"Yes."

Shinji smiled. That week of intensive training, seeing no one, but Kaji, Rei, and that guy who delivered the training dummies, had not only been beneficial to their bodies (outside of the bruises), but also to their friendship. All the rifts they had were filled, and if anything they were closer than they had ever been. Rei had also started using more slang (probably Kaji's fault). They walked inside a favorite ramen hut of Shinji's. Rei got vegetarian while Shinji got pork. They sat down at a booth to eat their food.

Belatedly, as he was breaking his chopsticks apart, Shinji noticed this was the booth he had sat in with Asuka on their second date. He shook it off and tied the chopstick wrapper into the knot his teacher had shown him so long ago.

Rei picked up some of her noodles on her chopsticks, blew on them, and ate them. Shinji followed suit.

After Rei had eaten for a bit, she put her chopsticks down on her knotted wrapper. It was a good trick Shinji had taught her. "Shinji?"

"Hmm?" said Shinji with a mouthful of ramen.

"May I ask you a question?"

He swallowed the ramen. "What is it?"

"Why did you and Soruy break up?"

Shinji blew out all the air in his lungs slowly. He looked up at Rei, down at his food, at Rei again, then back to his food.

"If you do not wish to talk about it…"

"No," Shinji cut her off, "No, I guess I need to tell someone. And I suppose if anyone deserves to know, it's you."_ After all, Asuka was the reason we weren't talking for so long. I make a horrible friend. _"Where should I start?"

"I know that Soruy requested her permanent transfer because of the break-up, but…"

"At the beginning, then?"

"A logical place to start."

"Okay. When Asuka came to Tokyo-3, I thought she was good-looking, and was attracted to her. She had a fiery personality, which I thought I was missing. So, even though she was always belittling me, I had a crush on her. But it was something I'd never tell her. I was too scared of what she'd do.

"Turns out she liked me too, but not all the time. She really, really liked me when I was in the EVA, but she didn't get why I'm like I am outside of it. She eventually decided I was just masking my true self. That was when I finally got up enough courage to ask her out.

"She was so happy. She thought that I was finally discarding my mask and standing up for myself. But I obviously wasn't. I'm just who I am. Little flashes of bravery from me were enough to keep us together for as long as we were, but…"

"You broke up."

"Right. She decided that she couldn't be around me anymore, because it embarrassed her. I don't know what she meant. That's why she went to Berlin" 

"I do not understand, Shinji. She told me numerous times she loved you."

"Just part of me."

"Then she did not love you."

"What?"

"She was in love with an idea of you, not you. What about you?"

"You mean, was I in love with her?"

"You don't have to answer."

"No," said Shinji, resting his head on his folded arms, "I don't know if I did. I know I liked her, but loved, I don't know."

"Gomen."

"What?"

"I seem to have made you depressed."

"No, no!" Shinji put his head up again and took another bite of ramen. "Not your fault. What style of swords do you think we'll study?"

"Styles. Major Katsuragi said styles, correct?"

"Yeah." He pulled out the book the teacher had given them. "Misato said she'd only look for styles from Meji or that were used in the Bakamatsu." Rei took her ramen and moved over to where Shinji was sitting to look at the book as well. He moved over so there was room for her, only blushing a very small amount.

"There aren't many ear-marked pages," commented Rei.

"Yeah, those were the ones the teacher said were Meji or Bakamatsu dai-sho styles. The book didn't have too much on the Meji era. There's Tennen Rishen-Ryu, Mugai-Ryu, Hokushin Itto-Ryu, Jigen-Ryu, and Nikkaido Heiho-Ryu."

"What are they?"

"Tennen Rishen-Ryu was most famously wielded by a minor officer of the Kyoto Shinsengumi, named Okita. It was a school mostly consisting of lunges, stabs, and short slashes. Some spin moves were included." Shinji read from the book. "The ultimate attack was known as the Shinden Blade, a straight stab to the target's center, hitting with god-like speed, giving the target no time to parry or avoid. Very useful for assassinations or one-on-one duels. The style was well suited for indoor fighting, duels, and fights in small spaces. It had very few overhead attacks. A samurai trained in this style would carry a katana of medium length."

"Interesting. Hmm. Mugai-Ryu looks like another similar style. It says: 'Mugai Ryu is a style based around its ultimate attack. Much like Tennen Rishen-Ryu in composition, only adding a few overhead attacks and with larger slashes, its most famous practitioner was Hajime Saitou, considered by many to be the best warrior of the Kyoto Shinsengumi, and the master of Okita. He was said to be able to fight the Battousai to a draw. It's ultimate attack was the Gatsotsu, a lunging stab followed by an outward swing to the right, in case the opponent dodged the stab. Very powerful if the opponent did not know about the attack. Saitou was the only left-handed practitioner of this style, and so his swing was to the left.  A fatal surprise for those who encountered it for the first time. Mugai-Ryu was considered a 'power style', but was not as effective as one would hope against more than four opponents. A swordsman of this school would carry a rather long katana." 

"Wow."

"Indeed, a most powerful style."

"I don't think I could learn any of these styles."

"You learned kempo."

"True, but we were taught hand-to-hand fighting as EVA pilots. Never sword training."

"Possibly. But martial arts are all fundamentally connected."

"Oh, I'm just too weak to learn them."

Rei just shook her head. "Ile. You beat Mr. Kaji numerous times. You are not weak."

"He was letting me win."

"He was not."

"Rei, a weak guy like me? No way."

The blue haired girl sighed then stood up, moving five paces away from the booth before slinging a chopstick at him. Shinji caught it in midair. She quirked an eyebrow. "You can do that."

Shinji looked at the chopstick in his fist as Rei walked back to the table to finish her food. "How..?"

She shrugged, sitting beside him. "I do not know. Hmm…Jigen-Ryu, commonly considered during the Meji era to be the most powerful sword school…"

"So, you two ready?" asked Misato as they closed the books they had found on Meji kenjutsu a few days later. They were working in Misato's apartment, after Rei had moved in at Misato's invitation. Thankfully for Shinji's sanity, Rei had dropped some of the habit she had when she lived alone. She was his friend, but she was hot. He didn't think he could take a repeat of that time when he dropped her card off.

Shinji let out a yawn. "Yeah. I don't think I need to know so much about Nikkaido Heiho-Ryu." His eyes went slightly blank. "Composed of three forms represented by the kanji 'one', 'three', and 'ten'. Ultimate attack is Shin no Ippo, or the Isikumi technique, an instant hypnosis that freezes a target of lower will. Can be shaken off," he recited, "Rei and I can tell you that for every sword school in the Meji era, outside of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. No book has any real information on its techniques…"

"Just that it is the 'most powerful form of kenjutsu," finished Rei.

"So you two are done with your research?"

"Yeah, we've got enough notes to fill Pen-pen's fridge. We'll write the verbal portion later. All I want is a few days of rest before going off to learn some sword school."

"I concur with Shinji."

Misato smiled. "Sounds good. I've found you some good teachers, not twenty miles from here. There's a small town that the teachers live in. You'll train there. But take a break first."

"Thanks Misato."

"Hey, I can't do anything less for my little Shinji and Rei, can I?" Misato sure adapted to new surrogate children well.

Rei and Shinji were stared at the people in the park from a hill they sat on top of.

"It's so much nicer in Tokyo-3 now that the Angels don't attack anymore," mused Shinji

"Yes, it is," agreed Rei.

Second chapter: Done! The next chapter will be a look at the time off they take from the project and a check in with the other groups. And then they're off to learn the art of the sword. Thanks to all my kind reviewers. I'll try to get out another chapter soon.


	3. Ahh A break!

Work of fanfiction.

Blades and Love

"Hey Shinji!"

Shinji and Rei looked down to see Kensuke at the bottom of the hill. He walked up to them. "Hey, Kensuke."

"Taking a break, huh? How's your project been going?"

"Tiring," said Rei.

"And bruising," added Shinji.

"Bruising?" asked Kensuke, "You aren't fighting over the project, are you?"

"No."

"Then how is it bruising?" 

"We learned Kempo from Mr. Kaji."

Kensuke fell to a sitting position. "Kempo? Why in Kami-sama' name did you…"

"Fighting styles," said Shinji, "Besides, Misato's been after me forever to learn some self-defense technique."

"Oh. Wow. So what else have you done for your project?"

"Memorized the stances, strengths, weaknesses, forms, uses and special techniques of every famous or popular Bakamatsu or Meji sword style," said Rei with a groan that never would've been there a year before, "In one week."

"Really? Jigen-Ryu's ultimate technique."

"Tsui no Eidan," they recited in stereo, "An extremely powerful two-handed jump slash that focused one's entire strength into the swing. All Jigen techniques were two-handed, while the style was normally one-handed. Easy to predict."

"Holy…you weren't kidding."

"Why lie?" asked Shinji, "I sure don't have the energy for it," he elaborated as he flopped onto his back. "No ceiling. Ahh." 

Kensuke and Rei followed suit on either side of Shinji, basking in the sun. Shinji yawned. "So Kensuke, how's your project going?"

"Not too bad. Mana and I have narrowed it down to a single pirate group called the Kairyu. Seems that their leader was a woman named Shura. She fought with a three-piece staff, kinda like nunchakus, except with an extra segment, and the segments could be held together by a skillful user to be used like a short staff."

"Hmm."

"Supposedly, no one who saw her face ever escaped alive. Funny, though. In the tenth year of Meji, the Kairyu disappeared entirely. No explanation was ever given" 

"Huh. Very peculiar. One would assume if the government shut the pirates down, they would extol their accomplishment," wondered Rei.

"Yeah," agreed Kensuke, "My guess is they were broken up by an internal struggle."

"That's probably a good guess," said Shinji, "How's Touji doing?"

"Oh, he complained about his project until he realized that Hikari was the perfect partner for it. She already knows the whole deal. Hey, I gotta be going. Ja na."

"Ja na."

"He has energy," noted Rei, almost enviously. 

"Lucky bastard," Shinji concurred. "Hey, Rei, was this park even around before the Angels stopped?"

"I do not believe so. If so, it is one of the best things that came of it."

Shinji looked over at her. "Above the world government?"

"There is really little difference. War became useless when the Angels appeared. I think this little bit of peace is much more meaningful."

"Hmm. I guess you could be right. But there was also the overlook."

"With the view of the city." 

"What do you mean?"

"Tokyo-3 was, and still is, a fortress. A castle may be beautiful, but not as this park is. This is peace."

"Tranquil, but not boring."

"Exactly."

"I could get used to it."

"You are not used to it already?" asked Rei confusedly

"Well, I guess I should be used to peacetime, and I am! But…it wasn't like this."

"I do not understand."

"Well, when I was going out with Asuka, life was always moving so fast. I didn't even know there was a park in Tokyo-3. I was never bored, but I think I missed out on some of life."

"Perhaps. I would not know. It can also be bad to take life too slowly…"

"Nikkaido Heiho-Ryu," blurted out Shinji.

"One, Three, Ten!" Rei recited, "What was that for?" she asked as Shinji laughed.

"I decided we needed to stop worrying and have a little fun."

"Fun?" When Shinji's mouth dropped open, Rei cracked a small smile. "Agreed."

Shinji and Rei drew quite a crowd on DDR. Shinji had always liked it, and it took no time at all for her to pick it up. The song they danced to was a simplified version of the routine that Kaji had worked out for the Seventh Angel, so they were able to sync their upper body movements along with their feet. It was rather ironic really, that the saving grace against the Seventh was one unshaven man's love of DDR. Of course, only Kaji, Shinji, and now Rei knew this, but…

Not the point. Two 'perfects' were the point, along with the thunderous applause from the crowd. DDR pads was possibly the only places in the world Shinji wasn't shy at all. Rei on the other hand, was blushing bashfully.

"Damn girl, you fine! You wanna go out with a stud like me?"

Amazing how fast she could go to cute blush to 'Kempo girl'. The fact that he was laid out cold made it rather obvious that the combo had hurt. Shinji looked on in what would've been shock had he not trained with her. Now it was just amusement, though he did have to wonder why she had reacted so…violently.

"Ahh, you two are back. Well, are you ready to go learn kenjutsu tomorrow?"

"Yeah, thanks again, Misato."

"Thank you once again, Ms. Katsuragi." 

"Rei, now that you live with me, my name is Misato, got it?"

"Yes."

"Now go and get some sleep. You'll probably need it."

"Right."

"I'll see you two until we drop you off."

"Bye, Shinji! Bye, Rei!" yelled Misato as they walked off.

They waved and kept on walking towards the place that Misato had told them to go to. The town was very old-fashioned, looking somewhat like a smaller Tokyo of old. After a little bit of walking, they came to a dojo, surrounded by a wall like every other private place in the town, with a wooden sign proclaiming 'Authentic Sengoku/Meji kenjutsu taught here.' Two people were standing outside of it, one a black-haired, slim man, short, with his hair cut short. The other was also black-haired, but she wore her hair in a high ponytail. She was built similarly to the man, and had a sheathed sword  tied onto her back.

"Hello," said the man, "I take it you are Shinji Ikari and Rei Ayanami."

"Yes," affirmed Rei.

"Pleased to meet you two. I am Hiko Sejiurou, and this is my sister, Sakura Myojin.*"

Done with the third chapter. Three in three days, booyah! Now, let's get to the sword training, and the part where things cross over a little more. And some more interaction between our two trainees. Ah, I do so love fanfiction.

*Hiko Sejiurou and his _sister _Sakura Myojin? This is not a miss-type. Hiko Sejiurou is the passed-down name for the master of a certain style of kenjutsu. 


	4. Welcome to the school of hypersonic swor...

Work of fanfiction.

Just wanted to clear up a few things here before I went any further. (This is mostly for you, Morningstar.) When I have been talking about sword schools (anything with –Ryu after it) the characters have been reading out of textbooks, which are rather dense reading, or reciting information they know. Also, all analyses of sword schools are based on footage from RK and the Bakamatsu OVA, along with my knowledge of sword fighting (with Internet resources for techniques). They are probably good descriptions of the schools, but you shouldn't consider them the last word.

Now, on with the story!

Blades and Love

"Pleased to meet you two. I am Hiko Seijurou, and this is my sister, Sakura Myojin. It's good to finally have some students."

"Please come in," said Sakura, "It's nice to finally have some company outside of this bokunenjin."

"Nanda!? Temee…forget it. Come on in. I understand you two are two of the original Evangelion combat pilots?"

"Well…yes," responded Shinji timidly. Not everyone was happy with what had happened because of NERV. And honestly, who was the fucker who thought up that ridiculous code name? Angel? Sure, let's piss off all the radical religious groups by killing off God's servants! Asshole. (Down in hell, Gendo Ikari sneezed.)

"Ah, so we were right. Your names sounded familiar. Any other combat experience?" asked Sakura.

"No," answered Rei, "But we have learned Kempo."

"Ah, that'll help a lot," said Hiko as they walked into the main dojo hall, "Oh, and call me Kenichi Myojin, if you prefer. I'm not particularly attached to my inherited name. Nor the cape."

"Now, I don't think your school uniforms are the best for practicing kenjutsu, so we have some clothes for you to wear here. In the next building over are bedrooms, so go there and change," said Sakura, handing them each a stack of cloth containing three hakama and gi each. She also gave Rei some wrappings

After Shinji and Rei had changed with minimal difficultly, they walked back to the Myojin siblings. The teachers were each holding a sheathed sword. "Time to pick which school you'll be learning. Take one of the swords."

Rei and Shinji walked forward, strangely gravitating towards Sakura and Kenichi respectively, even though they were standing in front of the opposite teachers. Sakura clapped. "Okay then," she said brightly, "Rei, we'll be going to the courtyard. You'll be going to the waterfall, right Hiko?"

"Right. Come on, Shinji." He walked out the door. Shinji had to walk quickly to catch up.

"Sensei, I don't understand. Waterfall?"

"Shishou."

"Huh?"

"Shishou is traditionally what the apprentice calls the teacher in this sword school."

"Okay. But, shishou, why the waterfall?"

"Because a waterfall is necessary for training in Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu." 

"Hiten Mitsu…" With that, Shinji fainted. 

"Baka deshi," said Kenichi with a snort.

"So Rei, you ready to learn kenjutsu?"

"I hope so. What school do you teach?"

"Me?" asked the bright, cheery, kenjutsu instructor, "I teach Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu. Want to know what your boyfriend is taking?"

"He is not my boyfriend."

"Oh, but you two would look so cute together, especially in these outfits! Oh well. Well, Shinji is going to learn Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu."

Rei's mouth gaped like a fish's. "That was the school from the Sengoku period on the sign," she realized when she composed herself.

"Right! Now the first part of your training is this: katsujin-ken."

"Sword that gives life?"

"Exactly. Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu was based on this principle."

"But a sword is a weapon, an implement of death."

"Yes. The final principle of nearly every sword school is 'kill some to save all'. But if one swings a sword that does not kill…"

"Katsujin-ken can be achieved," realized Rei.

"Exactly! So, what is the purpose of Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu?"

"To protect those who cannot protect themselves, while hoping that the defeat of the evil party will inspire them to change their ways?"

"Right! No one has ever figured it out so fast! Granted…I've only taught you, but…"

Rei looked on at the lively Sakura. She was the exact opposite of what Rei had been. It was certainly invigorating, if a bit annoying. "I think that it is a good principle to base a sword style on."

"That it is," said the other female, suddenly more serious. "Draw your sword. Don't worry, it's unedged, though it is tempered and made of folded steel. Now, most of Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu is built out of one stance. Musashi called it the middle attitude."

Rei drew her sword and held it two-handed, in front of her, with the base of the handle at about waist level, blade angled upwards, with the tempered side facing outwards. "Is this correct?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. In fact, it's perfect. You've never held a sword before?"

"Never."

"Huh. Well, give it a diagonal swing." Rei did so, the blade slicing through the air like it was on rails. "You never learned any form of kenjutsu?"

"No. Why?"

"Because your form is a close to perfect as I've ever seen. This'll just be a matter of building the right muscle groups, training your mind, and teaching you the succession technique." She smirked. "That means we get to do the fun stuff right away."

"Fun stuff?" asked Rei, halfway worriedly.

"Sparring."

Definitely time to worry.

"Now that you've woken up, and we've gotten here, let's start."

"Okay."

"We'll start at the beginning. The first principle of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu is 'The sword swung in my name shall be swung for the people of the world.' Historically, except for one student of this school, users of this school have been free blades, not tied to any side in a conflict. I think you know who the exception is."

"Hitokiri Battousai." 

"Very true. Draw your sword."

Shinji complied, to expose a reverse-bladed sword. "A sakabatou?"

"Yes. You hold in your hands a sword very like the one carried by the most important member of the school, save Master Hiten Mitsurugi himself." 

"Who was he?" asked Shinji, still bewildered by the sword.

"His name was Kenshin Himura. He was a short man, young-looking, with flaming red hair and a cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. Can you tell me who else matches this description?"

"The Battousai," realized Shinji.

"Right."

"But shishou, the Battousai was a hitokiri. This sword would be useless to him. It'd be far too hard to kill with."

"Exactly."

"I don't understand."

"No reason for you to. You do know about the Shogunate plot to kill him about half a year after Kyoto burned?"

"Three ninja dead, along with the field chief who set it up."

"No. One more died. The spy that got close to him, his wife, and his love."

"How?"

"In the fight with the field chief, who was incidentally, a master of Kempo, it looked as if Kenshin would be killed. Tomoe, his wife, ran out in front of him, to stop the knife she thought would kill him. Kenshin had just made a two-handed overhand blow that hit the field chief, and more importantly, his wife. That's where he got the horizontal part of the cross scar. She cut it into him as a reminder of her love for him." 

"And, the vertical part?"

"Given to him by her earlier fiancée, during an assassination. He fought through the revolution with his old sword, but as soon as his part was over, he took up this sword," Kenichi said, drawing his sakabatou, "taking a vow never to kill again to honor Tomoe. So the sword of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu changed from a sword of killing to the sword that only protects."

"That's good."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to kill anyone, but I want to help people."

"Well, then your mind is ready. Now Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu is the most powerful school of kenjutsu, because of three things that every student of the school learns: ma-ai, speed, and above all, flexibility."

"Ma-ai?"

"A good place to start. Ma-ai is the mastery of the space between you and your opponent. It is both the ultimate defense and the key to the invincible attack."

"Why?"

"Because if you are master of the space between yourself and your opponent, he or she can not approach to attack, without being attacked themselves, or being repelled by your defense."

"And if you are master of the space in between you and your opponent, you can approach without fear to attack."

"Correct. That is ma-ai in theory. But in a true fight, one cannot completely control that space. Rather you must gain dominance over it, and fill in the gaps in your incomplete ma-ai with speed."

"The second point."

"Right. Do you know why Jigen-Ryu was powerful, but against a truly skilled opponent, rather useless?"

"Because it is easy to predict?"

"No, a truly skilled swordsman would already see the moves of higher-level schools just as easily. The reason is because Jigen-Ryu focuses on strength. This let each blow be a devastating strike, but made them easy to avoid. Take a look at the hamon on your sword."

Shinji looked at the tempered metal, then thought about it for a second. "It's as sharp as a razor. So long as it draws, it will cut even if not much force is put into the blow."

"Very true. With a sakabatou, this is no longer so, but Master Mitsurugi realized this, and changed his focus to one on speed. Speed is far more important than strength. It made for a far more effective school. Now, I assume you know of the physics of an object hitting something, correct?"

Shinji thought of all the slaps he had suffered. "Oh yeah."

"So you know the force will be the same if the object is massive but moving slowly or if it has little mass but a great velocity?"

"Yes."

"Think of strength as mass and speed as velocity. Now, consider that speed lets one redirect their blade quickly and strike swiftly. You see the advantage of speed, correct?"

"Same power, even with a sakabatou, but more efficient for finesse."

"You learn quickly. The final element is flexibility. The school is built around the fact that there is no one stance for normal fighting, and no limits as to what you can do. Any type of attack is equally good, though most of the time students ignore stabs except when hitting a small target is absolutely necessary. Some techniques require a specific stance, but even so, a great deal of them forgo a set stance. Flexibility is also of the body, to achieve flexibility of the sword. Kenshin Himura could dislocate just about every joint in his body and then put them back again with no ill effects. Flexibility and speed are what 'pit one against many', as it is said."

"Is there anything else?"

"Two things. One, jumping. All students of Mitsurugi have an almost supernatural leap. Two, the ability to read an enemy's moves. This can only be partly taught. You must already have this ability, even in dormancy to truly master Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. Ready to start?"

"Yes," said Shinji, strangely confident. 

"Then we'll start with jumping. Take the gi off you top and stand under the waterfall."

Shinji complied, eager to learn more.

Well, yet another chapter done. Longer, and much heavier on the aspects of kenjutsu, especially HM-Ryu. I had no idea when I started this that it would be so successful. I think readers of this story should look at it like an anime series: mature entertainment in short bursts. I shall try to keep up my blistering pace, and will tell you if I take a break for the sake of my other stories. Now, a few notes:

1. Hiko is not the Hiko from the series.

2. Both the teachers are descendants of Yahiko's family and Kenji's family.

3. Kenshin's sakabatou is now a treasure of HM-Ryu, like the cape, Hiko's sword, and Hiko's name.

4. This is _not_ a definite Rei/Shinji though it is likely.

5. If anyone knows any other katana schools from the series outside of KKR, HMR, Mugai-Ryu, Tennen Rishen-Ryu, Hokushin Itto-Ryu, Nikkaido Heiho-Ryu, or Jigen-Ryu, please tell me the name, the place in the series, and the character that uses it or a description of the school. I'm running out of schools to use. Thanks!

Ja na!


	5. Friendship, the fertile ground

Work of fanfiction

To the R/S fans out there: 'though it is likely'! I'm a predominantly Rei/Shinji writer. The reason I put that warning there was because with the way I've set the plot, Asuka has a chance at Shinji. It's damn small, but it is there. Until further notice, consider this R/S.

And as for the Dougler? I'm hurt that you hate my food. The other things you hate I don't care a rat's ass about. Besides, flames can be a good thing in the cold Midwest. Heat is nice. On with the show!

Blades and Love

"Are you alright, Rei?" asked the rather damp Shinji as he walked into the trainee's room after his first day of instruction.

"Fine," said Rei, but the wince in her voice immediately told Shinji that she was not being truthful. To both him and herself. He crossed the room to where she was sitting against the wall.

"Rei…" he said as he kneeled down in front of her.

"I have some bruises. Nothing more." Still she held out! She started to get up. "I will leave so you can change."

Shinji put his hand on her shoulder. He didn't push down at all, hardly even touched her, but she stopped as if his hand was a steel plate. "Forget about that. Let me help."

Rei looked at his concerned face, then averted her eyes and shrugged off one of the arms of her gi. She lifted that arm, and hissed a little in pain. Shinji gasped. Angry red bruise marks mottled what of her side he could see like tiger stripes, and it was obvious some of her bindings were the worse for wear due to unedged sword strikes. He then noticed she was wearing wrappings on her forearms. He took the arm that was out of the gi and unwrapped it. More of the same. He lightly traced the marks with his fingers, focusing on the angry red smears on Rei's pale skin. Rei sucked in an involuntary breath.

"I'm sorry!"

"No, it was…soothing." Shinji returned to stroking the wounds.

"Sword practice?"

"Yes. I am not nearly as skilled as Sakura. But I believe I am improving." She looked away from Shinji. "Slowly."

"That's okay. We've got time. Besides, shishou won't even let me spar with him yet."

"What?"

"I have to get my body into shape first. My day was spent running, and jumping under a waterfall."

"Under a waterfall?"

"Yeah, I can jump up to the top of the roof now. Shishou wants one meter more. I also have to get my body to the point where I can move any part of it so fast it at least blurs. Not easy stuff."

"No. It wouldn't be. We had better get to sleep."

"Yes. Do you want me to leave?"

"Ile. There is nothing to be ashamed of." She placed her hand on Shinji's. "Besides, I might need your help."

Shinji blushed. Hard. "Sure, Rei."

Fifteen minutes, and a number of embarrassing moments later, both the trainees were dressed in their yukutas and lying in their futons. Neither could sleep. Both had too much on their mind. Or rather, one very large thought. _It's not like before. What am I feeling about him/her?_

A week later, Shinji's body looked almost the same in the kenjutsu uniform as it had before, but it was hardly the same one. His old scrawny muscles were replaced by corded steel, small and mostly unnoticeable, but just as powerful as those on a bodybuilder. And they were faster. Shinji could whip his arm so that Hiko could not see the sword swing. Hiko judged he could leap a half-meter higher than the three he had wanted, maybe more. Shinji's body was in the perfect shape for Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. 

Rei was becoming a much better swordswoman. She no longer sported as many marks at the end of the day, and her muscles had become like Shinji's. They had made almost a ritual out of Shinji tending to her wounds at the end of each day, but nothing more happened between the two, despite the tension, almost like the tension of one of the giant longbows of the samurai, just waiting to be released.

That was when things started to change.

"I don't think I am in as good shape as you, Shinji. It's time to start sparring. Get the swords and draw." Shinji walked over and grabbed the swords, still in their sheathes. He brought them over to Hiko, who drew Kenshin's old sakabatou. "Huh," he said as he swung the sword. "It feels like the balance is off." He examined the blade carefully. "It seems just the same." He re-sheathed the blade and took the other one out. "This one is spot-on. Strange. Shinji, try Kenshin's."

"Right, shishou." He slid the blade from the sheath slowly, reveling in the rich past of the sakabatou. He slashed with it and went through a brief kata. "It feels better than the other has in the past."

"Very queer. No matter. You use that blade, I'll use this one. Now, I want you to attack me. Do not hold back. Remember: ma-ai, speed, flexibility."

"Right." Shinji's eyes narrowed as he considered his options. Hiko's only weak spot in defense was his back. That meant…Shinji dashed forwards, just past Kenichi and spun, delivering a heavy blow to his teacher's back. Kenichi just barely got in a grazing blow to the cheek, barely enough to raise a red mark.

"Ughh!" Hiko dropped to one knee. He thought back to what he had seen Shinji do. And found it disturbingly familiar. It was Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu's own Ryu Kan Sen. He got to his feet with a great deal of difficulty. "Why did you do that?"

"The Ryu Kan Sen?" asked Shinji, "It was the quickest way of breaking your defenses, shishou."

"Shinji, I have not taught you any techniques yet. You shouldn't know how to do that, or even it's name."

"You're right," said Shinji worriedly, "I shouldn't."

Kenichi snapped his fingers. "Shinji, hit that tree over there, without moving from where you are standing. Call out the name of your attack."

"Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, Do Ryu Sen!" Shinji struck the ground blindingly fast, shooting a short stream of rocks and earth at the tree, which was now knocked down.

"Tree next to it, different attack."

Shinji sheathed the sword, popped it, then with a: "Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu, Hi Ryu Sen!", blasted his thumb against the tsuba, sending the sakabatou flying butt-first into the tree.

"I've seen enough. Let's go back to the dojo. I need to talk to my sister."

"I know! She's just the same way! I'm ready to teach her something, but she already knows it! It's like she's polishing off some extremely rusty skills."

"Have you asked her about the ougi yet?"

"No. Wait. Do you think Shinji might know the true Hiten ougi?"

"He might. It was never taught to Kenji, remember?"

"I know. He might just know it."

"Weird. So why do you think they're like that?"

"Honestly? I'd say they have someone else's kenki."

"So do you think Shinji is the resurrected Mater Mitsurugi?"

"It's not resurrection. Just the passing of one's fighting self. And honestly, I'd say that Shinji has the kenki of Kenshin Himura."

"Heh. I wonder if Rei has Kaoru's." 

"You shouldn't joke about it. This is what I think is the truth. Besides, she just might. In case you hadn't noticed, there haven't been many female practitioners of the school."

"Only three. Kaoru, me, and Rei. She _does_ have Kaoru's kenki."

"Only if I'm right, sis, only if I'm right."

"Are you alright?" asked Rei as the sat near the koi pond.

"I'll be fine Rei. He just barely tapped me."

"I see a red mark," she said, dampening her finger in the koi pond and running it over the mark. Shinji let out a little breath in contentment. It felt good. He didn't stop her when she reached up to caress the mark with her full hand either.

It was surprising. Shinji's mental image of Rei's hands were of small, dainty, soft, and warm hands. The hands of a nadesico, or an angel. Not what was stroking his face. It was small, and warm, yes, but it was also strong and callused. The hand of a swordswoman.

Reality was so much better than imagination. He reached up to clasp her hand in his, blushing when their fingers interlaced. He looked at her, her beautiful face. Her alabaster skin had a light pink tinge. He saw her outer beauty, that which had been described as 'angelic', but he drank up her inner beauty, that of her soul. Her as his friend, her as his comrade, her as a swordswoman, and her as his love. She saw much the same things. And in the Kanto region of post-Second Impact Japan, two new loves embraced. Love grows from friendship.

That was how the Myojin siblings found them, snuggled together, happy as could be. "Let's give them the day off," said Hiko.

"Yeah, I'd hate to break this up."

Yeah! WAFF! And another chapter done! Now, Rei/Shinji fan out there are happy, right? No, no kiss yet, but not every relationship starts with a kiss. Love grows from friendship. Take it slow if you want it to last. And in case you are wondering, Hiko is spot-on in his guess. Now, I have added one more school to my list: Saiki Kanuma-Ryu, but I still need your help. I am looking for schools that the weapons are the dai-sho set, and appear in the series. Since mummy-man's Ryu seems to be exclusive to him, there would be no information on it and therefore can't be put into this fic, so that one's out too. Still, any help would be good. 

Two more things. The first is my schedule for this fic. Story chapter should be updated on the weekdays. Weekends I will take off for my other stories (hint, hint), answering reviews, and building up a buffer.

Finally, a contest! If you can tell me which school I screwed up on the basic form, which school I stole a ultimate attack for, and which school I simply made up the ultimate attack for, you will get a short role in one of the next few chapters. (Probably some guy delivering the paper at the dojo or something.) One entry per reviewer, first to get it wins.

Hint: For the first answer read RK Manga volume two.

Ja na!


	6. Swordplay

Work of fanfiction.

A few notes: First, when Shinji called out the attacks it was because Kenichi asked him to. Secondly, Hiko's name, cape, and sword are passed down to the next generation. This is not all told to you in the anime, but is told to you in the manga (which came first) Thirdly, (awkward word) there will be conflict in this story. This that you have been reading is simply set-up. Next, Katyn, GoS is not truly part of the timeline of Evangelion. Finally, Tenryu, you asked about a certain line. The only student of HM-Ryu that used a sakabatou in the RK canon was Kenshin, and only after the revolution. I took the story and twisted it a bit. HM-Ryu has become a school of katsujin-ken through the use of the sakabatou. Katsujin-ken takes out the destructive effect on a sword fighter's soul, and so there is no argument to not pass it on. Because HM-Ryu is now theoretically restricted to non-lethal weapons, it is taught in the same dojo as KK-Ryu. That's how thing are now. The reason students use a sakabatou instead of a plain unedged sword is because one can use the blade on things other than humans. Oh, yeah, this chapter should have a nice high Rurouni Kenshin-style sword action quotient.

Now on with the show! Screw schedules!

Blades and Love

"Right, Rei, let's go at it again."

"Hai." Rei rapped her nami iaito against Sakura's lightly, then smashed it to the side with the flat of her blade, trying for an easy 'stab win'. She started to thrust the unedged practice weapon forward, but quickly realized she needed it somewhere else.

Somewhere being blocking the slash coming in at her ankles. She stabbed the tip into the floor, gaining some extra purchase, and braced, all within a second. Sakura's blow 'spanged' off the anchored blade, unbalancing her. Rei added to the condition by pulling her nami iaito out of the ground, leading with her elbow.

The blow to her chin caught the Myojin sister and sent her stumbling backwards. Rei tried to press her advantage, but a wild wide swing nearly caught her, so she jumped back. "Nice, Rei," complimented Sakura, shaking her head. _Damn! She's just as good as me now! How the hell should I do this? She sighed and sprang at Rei, with an upwards slash._

Rei dodged to the side and slashed in a wide arc where Sakura should have been. A hair too slow though. Sakura stabbed backwards at Rei's open front, but her aim was off. Rei's sword came down on her forearm. "Ahh!" yelped Sakura as she dropped her sword.

"I win," said Rei, breathing heavily, "Are we going to spar again, Sakura?"

"In a bit. Sit down." She patted the floor next to her. When Rei complied, she stretched, popping some joints. "You know, it's amazing how fast you and Shinji are learning these sword schools."

"Yes," mused Rei, "It is rather puzzling. I was under the impression that it took years to get to this level."

Sakura blew out a breath. "That's how it was for me. Same for Kenichi. Actually, to tell the truth, Kenichi is not a true master of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu."

"What?"

"No one has since the 13th Hiko Sejiurou and Kenshin Himura could be. Since then, the ougi was not passed down. We only know its name: Amakakeru Ryu No Hirameki, and that it's a form of battoujutsu." 

"Strange. Battoujutsu is a well-known attack in Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu. Why would they not be able to figure it out?"

"I don't know. Strange, strange, strange."

"So I'm Kenshin Himura's reincarnation?" asked Shinji.

"I swear…everyone asks that." He shook his head. "No. What you have is Kenshin Himura's kenki, his swordsman spirit."

"So that's why…"

"You know all the techniques of the school, yes. And why you can fight so damn well."

"And why this sakabatou only feels right for me now?"

"Right. Samurai thought the sword was an extension of their soul, or something to channel it through. That sakabatou is tied to you now."

"But I won't start turning into him, right?"

"No. But from what we were told as children, you're a lot like him already. So long as you don't start saying 'oro', I think we're fine."

"Huh."

"It also means I should start calling you Hiko."

"What?"

"I don't know the Amakakeru Ryu No Hirameki. Kenshin was the last one to learn it."

"It's very simple, but very effective. Battoujutsu leading with the left leg."

"The left leg. But you'd cut off your own leg like that!"

"No. One twists their body so that the blade misses themselves. The first strike generally is all that is needed, but if the enemy blocks that, you continue into a spin, making a second strike on the enemy who is drawn in by the strong vacuum created by the speed of the blade. It has never failed, but one cannot use it unless they truly wish to live. If you don't…"

"You die," filled in Kenichi, guessing the rest. "Maybe it's best that it isn't taught anymore."

"Yes, I think so. In this age of guns, it has no place."

"It is part of the past…"

"So is Second Impact."

"Yeah. Well, let's spar. You'll beat me, but it never hurts to stay sharp, ne?"

"Right." Shinji and Kenichi stood up from under the tree they had been sitting under and walked over to the waterfall. Shinji held his blade loosely in one hand, near the middle of the handle. Kenichi gripped his sakabatou tightly right up against the tsuba. 

On an unspoken signal both of the males sprang at each other, blindingly fast. An interesting hallmark of Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu was the fact that its students didn't use blocks often. They slowed a person down. Dodging and swinging offensively at attacks were far more effective for 'pitting one against many'. So it was that their first swings were both attack and defense. They both sprang back and circled each other. Kenichi feinted a jump and Shinji made to defend against a Ryu Tsui Sen. The older fighter sprinted at the younger, attempting to 'clothesline' his opponent's stomach with the folded-steel weapon in his hands. Too slow. Shinji flipped over his instructor and spun around in a powerful two-handed swing. It actually caught the back of Kenichi's gi, ripping it. The older man hopped forwards, turning in mid-air in time to redirect what would've been a very painful strike at his head. His return blow missed Shinji, who he discovered was running up the waterfall. Somehow, they had gotten backed against the waterfall. Amazed at the spectacle of Shinji running vertically upwards, through the falling water, he had no time to react as Shinji flipped off the rock wall behind the waterfall and brought his sakabatou down on the other male's shoulder in a Ryu Tsui Sen. Kenichi fell. "Damn!" he said when he stood up, sopping wet, "Where did that move come from?"

"Matrix," answered Shinji sheepishly.

Kenichi laughed. "Hardly something Kenshin would've had access to."

"Want to go again?"

"Nah. Let's go back to the dojo."

Shinji was more than happy to do this.

Sakura blocked a series of blows from Rei and slashed at her head. Rei simply sat down under the blow and tried to sweep the other woman's legs out from under her. 

No such luck. Sakura jumped over her leg and slashed downwards. Rei rolled out of the way and jumped to her feet. She dashed at Sakura, slashing upwards. The black-haired girl forced Rei's blade down, before trying to zip her's up it. Rei's strong kick to her stomach effectively put the kibosh on that plan.

Rei's eyes flicked to the door as it started to open. Sakura took the chance and smashed Rei in the side, sending her flying towards the door. Rei saw she was heading for the raised wood portion of the floor. It would be a painful landing.

Thank god for boyfriends training in hypersonic sword arts. Shinji caught her, giving her a discreet hug. Of course, swordsmen and swordswomen are rather observant, so both the Myojin siblings caught it, smiling slightly.

"I think that'll be enough for today, Rei. Why don't you and Shinji have some fun in town?

The still-new couple smiled and walked out the door, sheathed swords at their sides.

Like I said, screw schedules. You'll get chapter when I give them to you (yeah, like every day Kai-baka)! Figured you guys would like some sword action, so some sword action you get. Next chapter you get more Rei/Shinji interaction. The contest is still open. After the next chapter, I think I'll give you a nice long one and get Rei and Shinji back into Tokyo-3.

We'll see.

Ja na.


	7. Peace is the finest crystal

In case you were wondering, yes, this is fanfiction.

Blades and Love

"So what do you want to do, Rei?"

She interlaced her fingers with his, but loosely so she could free her sword hand quickly if necessary. "I think getting something to eat would be good."

"Sushi?"

"Yes, I do like seafood."

"Shit. I forgot about the meat deal."

She gave his hand a squeeze. "Not a problem, Shinji." 

He squeezed back and they walked off into a slice of the past, intent on finding a place that served sushi.

If it was not for the fact that one every once in a while saw an obviously modern object, it was possible to feel like you were back in the Meiji era Japan they taught you about. It was very peaceful. Shinji and Rei walked through the marketplace, no longer hand in hand, as they had their arms in the sleeves of their gi's, but they walked so close they could feel each other off their sides. Shinji was really starting to like the gi and hakama. His was a two-layered gi, dark blue outside white, and he wore gray hakama. Due to Japan's eternal summer, he left it mostly hanging open instead of drawing it close to his body. Rei's gi was white and she wore dark-blue hakama. She wore her gi more closed than he did, keeping some sense of modesty, as the wrappings did not go all the way down her torso, but every once in a while Shinji caught a glance of her bare stomach. This was not a fact that either of them minded. The style of dress of a swordsperson was much more comfortable than their school uniforms. The cloth was surprisingly soft, and it allowed a great deal of movement. And Rei looked really, really good in it. 

Shinji nudged Rei and they moved over to a stall selling kitchen knives. As they got closer, Shinji saw that they were tempered like the reverse edge of his katana. "Whoa. Those are some good knives."

Rei nodded. "I do not believe I have ever seen knives of such quality. Much better than Misato's."

"Most anything would be," answered Shinji, thinking of the bent, chipped set in Tokyo-3.

"Do you think we should get them, Shinji?"

"Probably. But those things must cost a fortune." He looked disappointed.

She cocked her head. "Shinji, we are EVA pilots."

His eyes widened. "I forgot about our salary." He bent down and entered the stall, making sure that his saya did not knock anything over. Rei followed. "Sir, may I see your wares?"

"Why certainly, young man," said a small old man as he stood up from his corner. "What are you looking for?"

Rei looked on contently as Shinji and the old man tested and discussed the knives. She couldn't cook worth a damn, better than Misato, maybe, but Shinji loved it. Though, she thought with a smile, not as much as he loved her, she was certain.

"Come on. I know that stall is around here somewhere." Rei's ear twitched. She knew that voice, but from where?

"Hey, how many people in Japan have real blue hair?" That one too. She thrust her arms all the way through her sleeves.

"I can only think of one. Ayanami."

"Let's go say hi, but quietly." Rei's left hand went to her saya and she popped the blade, getting ready to draw. Footsteps crept up quietly. Rei's right hand rested on the cotton-wrapped handle of her nami iaito.  

"HEY..!" the person never got any farther as Rei unsheathed her blade, spun around, and gave Touji Suzuhara a faceful of nami iaito.

"OH MY GOD!" yelled Hikari Horaki.

Shinji spun around, hand on the hilt of his sakabatou. He let out a sigh when he saw what has happened.

"Did someone get the license plate of that truck?" asked Touji groggily from the ground.

Shinji handed the shopkeeper the money, and tucked the package of knives into his gi. "How about the maker's mark on the nami iaito? Or the sword style?" he quipped.

"Oh! Ikari," said the surprised class rep.

"Shin-man?" asked Touji as he picked himself up form off the ground. "That you?"

"Yeah, it's me, Touji."

Touji dusted himself off and looked at the two sword students, standing next to each other. "Where'd you get the new clothes?"

"The dojo," said Rei as she sheathed her sword in the traditional style.

"So what are you two doing here?" asked Shinji.

"Doing a little research. We heard about this place, that it was the closest old-style town to Tokyo-3," said Hikari.

"Course, that's only a cover story," said Touji, "Hikari already knew most of the stuff, and what she didn't know, we found out in the library."

Hikari nodded. "We decided to take a little trip while we had the time off school. Besides, I wanted to get a set of kitchen knives they sell here, but we can't find the booth."

Shinji pointed over his shoulder. "You just found it."

Hikari went into 'kitchen utensil shopping mode' while the others waited.

"So," asked Shinji, after Hikari had gotten her knives, "Have you two had lunch yet?"

"No," grumbled Touji, "We were too busy looking for knives."

"Oh, stop complaining. We can go to that sushi restaurant now."

Rei and Shinji both wheeled around. "Did you say sushi? Where!?"

"Hookay," breathed Touji and Hikari under their breath.

Ten minutes later, the four teens were kneeling in a very traditional restaurant, that joy of joys, had sushi. Hikari and Touji were enjoying a 'love boat'. Shinji had ragged on them a bit for it until Touji had half-jokingly suggested that Shinji and Rei get one too. They had declined, finding another 'meal for two' that they thought looked better. This got a gasp out of Hikari.

"So you two are going out now?"

Rei nodded. "Yes."

"Isn't it a little soon after breaking up with Asuka?" asked Hikari.

Shinji slashed the air with his chopsticks. "Not really. People have to get on with their lives. One can't decide the timing by which emotions run. Besides, it's been a month already."

"Yeah, but…"

Shinji cut the brunette off. "Hikari, I'm not going to wait forever for something that's never going to come, especially when I've found something as precious, if not more." He popped a piece of sushi in his mouth. When no one said anything, he swallowed, and continued. "That's just how it is."

Touji smiled. This was a side of his friend he didn't see too often, and a welcome sight. 

Hikari frowned. It felt like Shinji was betraying her best friend. But also, she knew that Asuka was the one who had ended it. The frown was for herself as well.

Rei didn't know how to feel. _Something as precious, _thought the pessimistic side of her mind. _Am I just a replacement? No. Shinji is not that kind of person. _If there was one thing she believed entirely, it was that Shinji was good and honorable person who would rather lop off his own arm than cause someone pain. 

Plus, she caught Shinji's wince. She gave his free hand a squeeze.

"So, you two are learning kenjutsu out here, huh? Sounds like a pretty nice project," said Touji as he, Rei, and Shinji waited for Hikari to finish her clothes shopping.

Shinji yawned. "Yeah, but it's rather tiring. The training is rather intense." His eyes narrowed and he stood up, hand on the end of his saya, ready to pop his sakabatou. Rei had done the same. 

Touji looked back and forth between the two of them. "Hey, what's going on?" Suddenly a shriek cut through the air. "Hey, that sounds…HIKARI!" Touji was up and sprinting off in the direction of the scream. Shinji and Rei ran behind.

They soon came upon a group of maybe ten thugs, 19 years old on average. A couple of them were holding knives. All of them were in modern clothing, and were rather intent on giving Hikari and a few other girls a horrible time.

But not nearly as determined as Touji was to give them a savage beating. He rushed in behind two of them, jumped up into the air and split-kicked the pair. "You're gonna die," he growled.

The men all turned on him, drawing knives. Touji made ready to charge, only to stop at…Shinji!

The formerly timid boy was walking forward, in front of him. "You are despicable," said Shinji, sword still undrawn, "Assaulting defenseless innocents, and carrying knives to frighten off those that will stand up." He flicked this thumb against the tsuba of the sakabatou at his side, making ready to draw. "Why don't you find a worthy opponent?"

"Shut up kid!" yelled one of the brutes as he stabbed a butterfly knife towards Shinji.

A flash of light, a meaty thump, a grunt, and another heavy thump, and in the space of a blink, Shinji's sakabatou was out and the guy was out cold on the ground. Another blade was drawn, more slowly, as Rei stepped up to stand beside him, bringing her nami iaito to the ready.

The rest of the gang lunged at them. Rei leaped in between a pair of them, hitting one from the front, and the other from the back, crossing her body with the blade.

Shinji blocked a thrown knife and smashed the hilt of his sakabatou into the man's cheek before slashing out in wide arc that caught two of his opponents. He put the blade over his shoulder to catch a slash before spinning around in a powerful two-handed blow that caught the 19-year old in the side and sent him flying into a nearby stall. He used a Ryu Kan Sen on the next one, before flipping off and kicking another goon in the face.

Rei smashed a skinny guy's hand with a palm strike before dropping him with her sword. She and Shinji both slashed downwards on the last one, hitting him on either shoulder. He dropped to the ground, boneless.

Touji stared. "Oh, dear lord. How the hell? How can you move so fast?"

Shinji sheathed his sword. "I've had a good teacher."

Rei did the same. "Things worked out this way. Class representative?" She offered her hand.

Hikari took it and the azure-haired girl pulled her up. "Why did you do that?"

"My training as a swordswoman would let me do nothing less. Katsujin-ken is the foundation of my ryu."

"Why don't you two come to the dojo with us?" offered Shinji, "Meet our teachers, have some tea. I think you two could probably use it after this." The two unarmed students nodded.

Rei and Shinji were both very surprised to see a familiar blue Renault Alpine sitting in front of the dojo. They also didn't expect to see Misato there, arguing with Kenichi. 

"Look, all I know is that they're in town, probably shopping…wait, they're here." He looked up to see Shinji and Rei. 

Misato turned around and walked over to them. "We have to go back to Tokyo-3."

"What? Why?" asked Shinji.

"Peace is falling apart. The UN has lost control," said Misato, "No time to explain now. It'll be a lot clearer back at NERV."

Sakura came running out with a bundle of things, mostly the clothes that they had brought, but also a shirasaya, and a cape. "You might want to take these. They're yours now." She put the load in Shinji's arms. "Good luck."

Kenichi clapped his hand on Shinji's shoulder. "Remember the First Principle."

"The sword swung in my name shall be swung for the people of the world." 

Kenichi smiled. "Go and protect the people of the world."

Sakura smiled sadly at Rei. "Carry on the style for me, please?"

Rei nodded. "Of course. Katsujin-ken."

"Katsujin-ken." 

Shinji, Rei and Misato climbed into the car. "Goodbye, and thank you!"

After they had been driving for a while, Shinji turned to Misato, one of his arms around Rei, the other around his sakabatou. "Alright, Misato, what's going on?"

Misato pushed the pedal down further. "It looks like some moron got the bright idea to play warlord with their EVAs. Each NERV base is basically turning into a city-state. We don't have much of an idea of what is going on, outside of that NERV Berlin has fallen."

Shinji gasped. "Asuka?"

"She and Unit 02 are alright. They're making their way here by F-wing, but they have a real roundabout route to follow. It'll be a day. We're hoping she knows something about what's happened."

Bum-bum-bum! Peace shatters and it's EVA vs. EVA! Asuka returns! What will happen next in Blades and Love? (And why am I asking you?)


	8. Homecoming

Work of fanfiction

Blades and Love

"Okay," said Misato as she dropped the cell phone from her ear, "Touji and Hikari will be getting transport back. We're about ten minutes away from the nearest car train to NERV HQ, though I guess we'd better rename that Tokyo-3 HQ."

Shinji sighed. _Damn, why couldn't the Angels be the end of it?_ He smiled as Rei squeezed his hand, obviously noting his agitation. He pulled her close to him, stroking her hair. "Thank you," he whispered to her.

She snuggled closer to him, a far cry from the girl he had piloted to spare. "You're welcome."

Misato drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "Looks like we'll have to stay at NERV tonight." She sighed. "Damn the stupid bastard who decided to go rouge. If it's not Angels it's humans. I just don't know what to do."

"Prepare," said Rei, "We can do nothing else."

"Right. You're right."

"Well, here's the place we'll be staying in tonight." Misato keyed in the code she had been given.

The door opened to…a two-bed room. It was not very large, and part of it was being used to store a bunch of pamphlets. Misato's eyebrow twitched. "This could be trouble."

"No it won't," said Shinji, walking into the room.

"Look, Shinji, I realize that you two are now an item, but I'm not letting you two sleep in the same bed."

Shinji turned around and shot a nasty look at Misato before taking his sakabatou and saya out of his obi and sitting down against the pamphlets. He propped the sword up on one shoulder and put his arm around it, holding it in place. "I'll be just fine."

Misato just stared at him. That kenjutsu training had brought out a different side of him. He had already nodded off.

Rei stepped inside, removing her gi and hakama, before slipping under the covers of one of the beds, sword still in hand.

Misato looked at the two before shaking her head and lying down on the other bed, still fully clothed. She would need the sleep in the morning.

Asuka paced back and forth in the small cabin of the F-type transport wing. They had been aloft for nearly a day and a half now, and she was getting seriously agitated. What was worse was that she couldn't do anything. She shuddered. One of the original combat pilots, the great Asuka Langley Soryu, and she couldn't do a thing. The enemy EVAs had ripped Klaus to bloody shreds as he bought time for her to retreat. She should've been the one to save him, but he had been stupid, charged ahead and…well, Asuka mused, acted a hell of a lot like she had back when the Angels were still coming. 

Asuka was not an idiot. She knew she had that problem. It had taken Klaus's death to drive home the point, but she knew it now. She sat down and sighed. Klaus…he had been a perfect specimen of what in 1942 was called an 'Aryan'. Strong, tall, blonde with blue eyes, fairly smart…and completely in love with Asuka. Or so he had said. The auburn-haired girl suspected that it was a crush, if a monster of one. He was very devoted to the new world that had sprang up after the Angels, very devoted to piloting.

Come to think of it, once he felt strongly about something, he was nearly unshakable in his defense of it. Or pursuit, even if he was polite about it. Once Asuka had turned down his initial offer for a relationship, he had done his damnedest to be a sweet and gentlemanly friend. 

She just couldn't let herself get into a relationship yet. Not after what she had gone through with Shinji. 

_"Asuka, I lo…" And a spurt of blood as some shrapnel went through his neck. _Asuka shook her head violently to clear the image from her mind. That was something else that went under the heading of 'painful memories'. She kicked the wall. Damn it! Damn it all to hell! Four EVAs. Where had they gotten four EVAs?

"Ma'am, we'll be landing in about ten minutes."

"Thank you," said Asuka, still pacing, "Do you think I should get into 02?"

"No ma'am. They should be friendly and carrying a manned Evangelion could be seen as an aggressive act," said the copilot. "Besides, we haven't been running power to it."

"Why?" asked Asuka, rather pissed. "If we came under attack…"

"The power delivery system isn't working," answered the pilot, tapping a MFD readout, "We're not idiots ma'am. Besides, we should be getting an escort from Tokyo-3 soon."

"Right…" Asuka grasped the sword and dagger Klaus had taught her to use.

"Asuka!" The half-German girl looked up to see a familiar purple-haired woman waving at her. She walked over to her, still holding the sheathes of the European-style weapons, her duffle bag slung over her shoulder. "It's good to see you again, even if it is for this."

Asuka smiled a bit. "Good to see you to Misato. Packed a little less than last time, though."

Misato gave another smile. "Definitely." 

Asuka looked around. "Where are Shinji and Wondergirl?" Her old name for Rei no longer seemed to carry the derisive tone from back when the Angels were attacking.

"Still sleeping, I think. You want to go see them?" 

"Yeah."

"Then we'll have the debriefing."

"The pilot and copilot know more than I do."

"Yes," said Misato, "But I don't trust them as much as you." The women both smiled and walked off towards the section of NERV given over to living space.

Rei was just getting her hakama and gi from where she had placed them yesterday when the door buzzer sounded. She draped the gi around herself before she opened the door to see Misato and Asuka standing there. "Good morning, Misato, Soryu."

"Wondergirl? What are you doing dressed like that?"

"I just woke up."

"Where's Shinji?"

"Right here," said the swordsman as he stood up. He placed the sakabatou in his obi and walked to the door. "Good to see you again, Asuka."

"Likewise. But what's with the samurai outfit?"

"More comfortable than a school uniform. Misato, what are we doing for breakfast?" 

Misato grimaced. "Cafeteria." The NERV cafeteria was infamous for its bad food. If Shinji didn't know better, he would say her job was really as the cafeteria's cook. The only safe thing was the rice.

"Yay," grumbled Shinji, "an all-carb breakfast."

The pilots and Misato got a happy surprise when they got into the cafeteria. It seemed the cook had finally been fired, and replaced them with a new one. They were free to eat whatever they chose without risking food poisoning! 

Anyway…

Shinji and Rei did look extremely out of place in the NERV cafeteria, Asuka only a little so in her NERV uniform with Berlin patches, but they were all far beyond caring. They just wanted food, and answers.

As Asuka finished chewing a bite, Misato put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Asuka, what happened?"

Asuka swallowed and drummed her fingers on the table. "I really don't know. One day four EVAs just attacked. Klaus and I sortied…"

"Klaus?" asked Misato.

"MP11's pilot. It was obvious we were out of our league so he held them off while I escaped."

"What happened to him?"

"He's dead. I think the EVAs were 03, MP02, MP16, and I'm pretty sure on MP19." The MP was somewhat of a misnomer. The original mass-production series had been scrapped and a new di-model series was built. The designs were based on 02, or 03/04. The five original EVAs (00 to 04) were separated from the rest by the resetting of the numbers and the adding of MP.

"Huh," grunted Misato, "That's the two from Massachusetts, New York, and a Canadian EVA. Well, they have at least five EVAs now."

"What?" asked Shinji.

Misato looked over at Shinji. "You can regrown a destroyed EVA, Shinji, remember?"

"But what about pilots?" 

"Not impossible to find. If this Klaus wasn't dead, they'd probably try and convert him though," said Rei.

"Wouldn't have worked," said Asuka, "They would've just shot him."

"Right. Well, we've got someone playing EVA Risk, and we'd better get ready if we want to stand up to him."

"Misato," said Shinji, "I've got a nasty feeling that it won't be just one person for long. I'm going to the gym." He stood up and grabbed his sword. "Care to join me Rei?"

She nodded and grabbed her sword, standing up as well.

"Hey," said Asuka, "You two mind if I join you? I'll try not to kick your asses too badly." Her voice carried a bit of her old arrogance.

"Sure," said Shinji, smiling a bit.

"Misato, would you take my bag to wherever I'm staying?" Asuka picked up her blades and moved towards the exit.

"Have fun." Misato watched as the three EVA pilots walked off to the gym, blades in hand.

Another one done. Next on Blades and Love: the gym. Swordfights between all three pilots! Plenty of sword-swinging action, and more Rei/Shinji interaction, to Asuka's…acceptance!? What's going on!? Find out next time.


	9. Sparring

Work of fanfiction

Blades and Love

A/N: Now I know all of you love swordfights, so that's what you're getting today. Now, ponder this question as you read: why are European swords inferior to Japanese swords? Today's lesson starts now.

Something occurred to Shinji as they entered the gym. "Hey Asuka, are your blades blunted?"

The redhead nodded. "Yeah, I never got a chance to get any real ones. Not a big deal, these are just for practice, so I can use the EVA ones."

"Good." Shinji drew his sakabatou. "Then there aren't any problems. Who wants to go first?"

Rei drew her blade. "I do. I will be needing a warm-up before going up against you, Shinji."

Asuka shook her head. "Warm-up?! Oh, you're going to get it now, Wondergirl. Prepare for a beat-down." Asuka's words almost sounded like friendly smack talk. It was a far cry from what would've issued from her mouth when the Angels were attacking. She drew her blades, an old-style rapier and a main gauche. 

Shinji sheathed his blade and held out his hand. "Can I see that sword?" Asuka handed it over and Shinji took a couple of experimental swings with it. "Ugh. Heavy." The rapier he was holding was _not _the cup-hilt epee made famous by Errol Flynn and numerous 'swashbuckling' Hollywood films, but something the 'Three Musketeers' would have actually used. The blade was heavy, and very stiff. It was a stabbing and chopping weapon, not a sword that made little nicks in a person. And Shinji's least favorite thing about it… "This thing's balance is horrendous. How do you fight with it?" It was balanced like a saber, with the balance point about a third of the way down the blade.

"Baka! I happen to like this thing!" she said as he handed it back.

"Keep it," said Shinji, "I'll stick with my sakabatou."

"Baka. Ready Wondergirl? " Asuka held the rapier in her right and the main gauche in the left. The long blade she kept out to attack with, while she left the shorter one in to guard her self. Rei went straight into the middle attitude, waiting for Asuka's attack.

The German girl obliged her, lunging for ward, rapier straight out in an impaling attack. Rei lithely avoided the attack, then brought her nami iaito down on the European blade's balance point, knocking it into the gym floor. Rei then pulled her blade around and slashed at Asuka's body. Asuka barely got the main gauche up in time, barely deflecting the slash. Rei jumped back and regarded her opponent coolly. The fight was hers. Not only was she a better swordswoman, having inherited Kaoru Himura's kenki, her sword was simply better. With a balance point at the hilt, she could maneuver her blade easily, while Asuka could not. Granted, Asuka had a more powerful swing, but then, Hiten Mitsurugi-Ryu was built on speed, and Rei was very familiar with what it could do. It was time to end it. Rei lunged at Asuka, bringing her sword around in a powerful slice before bringing it upwards and into a two-handed stroke down.

As Rei had predicted, Asuka avoided the horizontal slash. The German girl was _not_ a slouch when it came to swordfighting. But she was used to a weapon that could not be easily maneuvered into a second attack so easily so the downward attack caught her by surprise, hitting her shoulder.

"Ahg!" Asuka fell to the floor. "Damn, Wondergirl…not bad." She picked herself up off the ground. The blue-haired girl gave a quick rei (bow) to the auburn-haired one, and stepped back, sheathing her sword. "Would've never thought you'd get better than me, the number one EVA pilot in the world. Chalk it up to luck." Some of the kids in school would've found her almost respectful joking tone scary. It was pretty damn different from what they would've remembered. "I'm up for another round, c'mon, Shinji."

"Right." Shinji stood up and put his sword in his obi. "I'll call techniques." 

"Oh, give me a break, baka. You need all the advantages you can get." Was that her imagination, or did she hear a slight snicker from Rei? Definitely her imagination. "Come on, get that sword out."

"Fine," said Shinji, drawing the sakabatou and putting it in a loose one-handed grip. "You first."

Asuka shook her head and lunged at Shinji, only to discover that he wasn't there any more. "Over here," said Shinji from behind her.

"What the hell?!" Asuka swung the rapier at him before the boy disappeared _again_!

"Uh, up here. Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Ryu Tsui Sen!" called Shinji from the air above the German girl.

To her credit, Asuka was able to bring up the heavy rapier to guard against the attack. Many people would have trouble doing that with a katana. And she was able to get her main gauche under the tip of the sword's blade to support it. A very good move. But Shinji's hand was filled with trump cards. Gravity, a two and a half meter fall, Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, and let's not forget the kenki of Kenshin Himura coursing through his body. It was a rather good thing Shinji didn't have a katana. Ryu Tsui Sens were an almost guaranteed sword-cutting move.

As it was, Asuka's arms and blades were hammered down and the sakabatou's dull edge came down on her shoulder, the one Rei had not abused. Asuka went to the floor, and hard. Shinji winced. Like Kenshin, he really liked the Ryu Tsui Sen and Ryu Kan Sen, and had a tendency to overuse them. He shouldn't have used a technique on her. Kenichi was able to get back up, but Shinji guessed that Asuka would have a little more trouble. He had also probably hit a tad harder than he should've, remembering that she had always been stronger than him. He quickly sheathed his blade, but not too quickly. No need to make _that _sound.

He knelt and started shaking Asuka. "Hey, you alright?" Rei came over as well, and rolled the German onto her back.

"Shinji…"

"Yes, Rei, I know. The Ryu Tsui Sen was completely unnecessary." Shinji sighed. 

Rei brushed his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. She'll be out for a while, but won't take serious damage. Just a sakabatou shaped bruise."

Shinji sat down. "Yeesh. This is hard to get used to, being able to do the whole Hiten deal."

Rei sat down right next to him. "For the people of the world, right?"

Shinji cracked a small smile. "Right." Their hands intertwined as they looked at each other. It was amazing, the amount of energy that could exist in the space between two people, especially swordspersons. Kenki was not limited to expression through the sword. With the right people, it could also manifest in the way they talked, touched…kissed.

Shinji and Rei withdrew from the gentle closed-mouth kiss, in bliss. Damn, but it felt…right. They moved in for another kiss, a longer one, arms snaking around one another. The two students of kenjutsu drank in each other's love tenderly. It was far to precious to handle any other way. The broke off the kiss and regarded each other's face silently.

"Cute," teased the newly-awakened Asuka. Shinji and Rei both looked over at her, startled. "So you two are going out. Thought so. Glad to see you didn't pine over me, deep in depression."

Shinji winced imperceptibly. For a week that had been a little closer to the truth than he would've liked. "You recover quickly."

"Eh," said Asuka, with a smirk, "I'm the number-one EVA pilot, right? What was that move anyway? And aren't you supposed to kiss and make up after a fight?"

"It was Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu," answered Shinji, "I used a Ryu Tsui Sen."

Asuka tapped her chin. "I'm reminded of a Japanese history lass I took in college. It's a sword style, right?" At their nods, Asuka went on. "Some famous guy used it. The Hitokiri Battousai, right?" They nodded. "Huh. Hold it! THE HITOKIRI BATTOUSAI?! You're joking."

"No," answered Shinji as he and Rei stood up and stood next to each other, "His name was Kenshin Himura, and this," he popped the sakabatou, "Was his sword."

"Uh, baka?" asked Asuka with a disbelieving look on her face, "No hitokiri would use that thing."

"What do you know of his life after the Bakumatsu, Asuka?" asked   
Shinji, quite seriously.

"Nothing, duh, baka! No one knows anything. And where did you learn his name?"

"From the person who told me he swore never to kill again and threw away his old sword. One of his friend's descendants." He resheathed the bit of blade that was showing.

Rei tapped his shoulder. "Now that she's awake, are we having our match?"

"Calls?"

"No calls."

"Right." The two of them went to opposite ends of the gym. Asuka looked on, interested.

Shinji simply popped his blade, while Rei assumed chudan-no-kamae. Shinji slid into the stance of battoujutsu, then thought better and drew his blade, settling into an open one-handed stance. Rei gave a little jerk of her head. Shinji, to Asuka, seemed to disappear and appeared in front of Rei, blades locked. 

Rei could follow Shinji, albeit with some trouble, and knew that the fight was Shinji's. Really, with Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu, Shinji owned any swordfight. It was just a matter of time and techniques used. Didn't mean she couldn't fight back, though. She pushed him away and thrust her sword at his stomach. Shinji parried it to the floor and jumped over her, slashing as he turned in the air. Rei spun around, hammering the blow aside with her nami iaito. Shinji grinned slightly and dashed to the side, slashing overhand. Rei simply avoided the strike and gave him an upward sweeping blow in return. Shinji jumped over Rei again, rolling to the side as he hit the ground, as Rei had simply opted to let go with the left and go 'around the world' with the blow. Shinji flipped into the air and came down with a Ryu Tsui Sen that hit the ground Rei had been standing on a half-second earlier. She stabbed backwards, and though she didn't know how he did it, he parried the one-handed thrust. They both jumped away and landed, Shinji breathing only slightly more heavily than normal, and Rei edging into the realm of panting. But both of them had small, almost feral, grins on their faces. Asuka was only able to see them for a few second before they dashed at each other again. Rei was looking for a blade lock, but Shinji changed course at the last second and performed a Ryu Kan Sen Tusumji. 

A Ryu Kan Sen, sure, Rei could block that, but the second and third levels of the technique were beyond her defensive skill. She went flying towards the ground, the force of Shinji's blow attenuated by her block. Still, the ground wasn't soft.

And neither were the arms that caught her, but she found them a comforting presence. Thank god for boyfriends training in hypersonic sword arts. Rei reached up and kissed him.

Asuka stood stunned.

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know it's been a while, but I gave you the kiss and sword action, didn't I? What more could you freaking want? Outside of EVAs. That's coming soon. By the way, my old contest is still open.


	10. Everybody was EVA fighting!

Yes, I know its been forever! Dedicated to the woman who thinks she's a dingy old broad, even if she isn't: the incomparable Kanzen ne Tsuki, also known as the Dragon Lady! If you like RK, check out her work! 

Work of Fanfiction

_Holy shit. I just fell in love with him. Really fell in love this time. _Asuka stood watching the two other original EVA pilots kiss. _And there's no room for me. Damn does my life suck._

Shinji and Rei raised their mouths from each other's and looked at Asuka. "Are you alright, Asuka?"

"What are you talking about, baka?" asked Asuka, shaking off her stupor. 

"Well, Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu isn't exactly normal everyday stuff…"

_You baka. That's not a big thing at all. Not for you. You really are 'Invincible Shinji'. We all always knew it. I'm stunned that you realized it. And jealous that she was the one who let you learn it. Jealous that she will be your one and only love. _"And EVAs are?" interrupted Asuka sharply

"For us," said Rei, "They are."

Asuka returned the comment in kind and the conversation went on, sounding like three long-time friends finally getting back together. To be fair, it almost was.

---

Misato sat hunched over a tactical map of the world. Only one word could describe what the computerized table was telling her. Chaos. Though 'fuck' might not have been a bad choice. She massaged her temples and took another cautious sip of the stuff that passed for coffee in any government agency. She looked across the map again and racked her brain for any flashes of brilliance. No such luck.

Misato looked up to the sound of approaching high-heels. "Hey, Ritsuko."

The false blonde sat down on the other side of the table. "Having trouble?"

"That's a nice way of putting it," sighed Misato, resting her chin in her folded arms.

"What's the big deal?"

"Oh," growled Misato, gesturing to the world map, "Just the fact that we can't get any reliable data. The only things that I can tell are what each 'base-state' entails." She drummed her fingers on the table. "Can't tell a region's alliances except to itself worth shit."

"So?" asked Ritsuko.

"So I can't make any decision other than to attack or defend, and where." Misato tapped a few keys, enlarging Japan and part of Asia.

"What are you leaning towards?" asked the scientist, lighting up a cigarette and taking a drag on it.

"Don't really know. Take a look." Misato tapped a few more keys, highlighting Japan. "We control pretty much all of Japan. As you know, Matsushiro decided to join with us. That gives us four EVAs." A quick clatter of fingers on a keyboard and the tabletop screen changed from the map to first-level schematics of the four EVAs. "Obviously 00-02. You know all about those. And there's MP 23. It's a 03/04 model MP."

"Misato, I know all that. I'm the world's expert on EVAs, remember?"

Misato waved that off. "Yeah, yeah. We've also got most of the JSSDF under our control as well as a bunch of UN troops. And our NERV troopies, for what they're worth."

"I take it by the sarcastic tone that you adopted, you don't think too much of them."

"C'mon, Rits! You know as well as I that they're rent-a-cops with SMGs. Hell, our techs are probably better fighters. Not the point." Misato tapped her finger on the image of MP 23 on the screen. "The point is that we only have three active pilots. I know we have our reserves. Activate them."

Ritsuko gazed evenly out from the cloud of blue smoke at Misato. "I'm not even going to ask how you knew that. Fine. Let's see. If we're looking for pilots with combat-worthy sync rates, I'm thinking Touji Suzuhara, Hikari Horaki, Kensuke Aida, and Mana Kirishma are our best bets. We have some others, but that should keep us supplied for a while. Now, tell me, what's your plan?"

"Well," said Misato, "Out of all the base-states, we're the best situation for defense. A bunch of EVAs and no immediate hostiles by land."

"So, you're thinking defense?"

"Have you ever played Risk?"

Ritsuko was taken aback at this. "No, can't say I have. What is it?"

"It's an American board game. The point is to conquer the world. We played it a lot at the Academy. In it, the best way to win was to conquer territories. Being defensive got you killed fast."

"Right."

"Well, at the moment, this is looking like a huge and really convoluted game of Risk. Call it EVA Risk, if you will. The EVAs are like armies in the game, because, let's be honest, an EVA in plain old induction mode can take down the world's military, so long as it isn't challenged by another EVA, given enough time. And the CFR packs certainly give a pilot that time. Damn the person who made cold fusion available for EVA use. Unlimited activation time in induction mode. If there weren't any CFR packs, this wouldn't be a straight EVA vs. EVA fight."

"Well, that keeps casualties down."

"Kinda. EVAs aren't exactly weapons for surgical strikes. Besides, think of what this is doing to all those kids."

"How many times did we have that conversation when the Angels were still around?"

"Three times, I think. But this is a little different."

"How so? Actually, it's less of a burden than the Angels. Its not like the world will be destroyed if they lose."

"Yeah, but the Angels weren't kids like them."

"EVAs do have ejection systems."

"Tell that to Klaus Weber." Misato sighed. "And Asuka."

---

Ritsuko had long since left when Hyuuga walked in with a pot of coffee. "Hey. You still not done?"

"Hey Makoto. No. But I almost am." She gratefully accepted another cup of coffee. "Tell me what you think." She brought up the world map again, slightly stylized, with EVA graphics denoting each base-state's forces.

"Whoa! Looks like a Risk board."

"You played that game, too?"

Hyuuga nodded as he surveyed the board. "I always had devilish luck with dice, and I wasn't half bad on the strategy side. Let's see. Well, one-on-one, we have the best three units in the world. So, I suppose we could think of that as a perpetually lucky roll. But combat isn't quite the same as in the game. Hmm. And a bunch of places have more EVAs than us. That's not good. And since EVAs are salvageable…we need to attack."

Misato nodded. "Beyond that, we need resources. EVAs aren't easy to keep running."

"Yeah, the upkeep on anything that large is never small. So where do we take over?"

"Japan had it right back in WWII." Misato stabbed her finger down on part of China. "We're heading to Manchuria!"

---

Touji stretched as he and Hikari awoke from the embrace they had been in for the trip back to Tokyo-3. The Section 2 agent driving the car glanced back and saw the two of them. "Just a few minutes to the city limits."

Touji yawned and brushed a hair out of Hikari's face, smiling down at her. "Wonder why we had to come back so soon?"

"Well," said Hikari, "yes. But it really doesn't matter too much, does it?"

"So long as I'm with you, no," said Touji, bending down to plant a kiss on her forehead

That probably saved his life. Two men opened up with machine guns, killing the driver and disabling the car. Broken glass sprayed everywhere. The heavy sedan swerved and skidded to a halt in front of the van that the gunmen were standing in front of. Touji peeked out the window, covering Hikari with his body. Another of the men was leaning up against the van, playing with a combat knife, and a fourth was behind the wheel. The two gunmen opened up the van's side door and threw the machine guns back inside, before moving as if to check the car.

Touji kicked open the far door, and dragged Hikari out with him, planning to lose the men in the nearby forest. A Chinese-accented voice and a sadistic grin stopped him.

"Hello, little boy, going somewhere? Nice girl. I'll have to rape her before I kill her." With that, the guy thrust his knife into Touji's forehead, with a big shit-eating grin on his face.

Or at least, he tried to. The knife point bounced off Touji's skull, leaving only a small scratch. Then Touji's fist smashed into the man's jaw, sending him flying nearly thirty feet, with a broken neck. Hikari threw a mechanical pencil and it stabbed into the neck of one of the other men, who was digging in his jacket, probably for a pistol. Blood spurted, smearing Hikari's cheek as she ran up and jumped into the air, before kicking the other man in the head. A pistol dropped from his nerveless fingers.

Touji ran after the final man, who had a riot shield and baton. A swift kick knocked the baton flying, and the man cowered behind the clear plexiglass shield. Touji punched the shield with his right fist, and after half a second, it shattered, a shard cutting open the man's artery. Blood sprayed out in a wide fan. Touji ducked to the side.

"Damn! What happened?"

Hikari walked up behind him and pulled out her cell phone. "I don't know, but I'm calling NERV."

---

"Hey, Rits."

"Yes, what is it Misato?" asked the scientist as she looked over a report on her desk.

"Can you make new weapons for the EVAs?"

Ritsuko looked up, surprised. "Yeah, but what for? The arsenal worked just fine against the Angels."

"Against the Angels. We're not fighting Angels. Besides, nearly every kill was with a blade or the EVAs hands. We're too biased on guns."

"Right. We have knives, axes, spears, and swords. We have blades, Misato."

"But we don't have a weapon the pilots have mastered. They're going to need that. Asuka has her weapons. But Rei and Shinji don't."

"Well, I can't make an EVA weapon for them if they don't have a weapon they mastered."

"Rits, they're both honest-to-god masters with katana."

"We have a katana, Misato!"

"With a funky, overlong handle, a flimsy blade, and no hilt. I'm quoting Shinji, by the way. He tells me that he can't fight with it." She sighed. "He was very insistent. He wants a _real _katana, scaled up, with a prog blade."

"Shinji?"

"Rei too, actually."

"No, no. I mean, Shinji was like this?"

"That training really gave him a bunch of confidence. And rightfully so. You want to argue with a kid with a sword at his side, when he knows exactly how to use it? And he dresses like a samurai."

"Misato, I think you've been hitting the beer a little too hard."

"I'm stone-cold sober, Rits, as I know far too well. I haven't even seen anything alcoholic since the alert came in." Misato sounded a bit frantic. "And you know what else? Shinji is in _love _with Rei! Not just going with her, in _love_."

"You sound like you did when you told me Asuka and Shinji were going out. I almost though they were engaged!"

"So I was happy that I wouldn't have to see them skirt around it! But I never said they were in love! Shinji isn't ready for that, and neither is Rei!" Misato started pulling at her hair.

"Its really a shame that you and Kaji didn't get hitched and have any children. You make a wonderful worried mother."

"Ha, ha. Yeah, I'm worried! Shinji and Rei live under the same roof!"

"I can't imagine the number of worried mothers that have been wrong in the last month. Give it a rest, Misato. I don't think you have to worry about those two following your and Kaji's example."

"You haven't talked to them since they got back."

---

Aoba leaned back in his bridge chair, listening to music and playing air guitar. For all the shit that was going on in the world, the monitors were nice and quiet. The most activity he had was getting up for a new cup of coffee.

Hence why he was rather surprised when Misato stormed in. "Aoba! Get the SMG you keep under your console."

"What the!?" He took his feet off the console and turned off his music. "My SMG? Why?"

"I just got a call from two of our new pilots. When they were being brought here, they were attacked by some men with Chinese accents. The agent was killed, but they managed to kill the attackers."

"May I ask how?" asked Aoba incredulously. 

"Insanely powerful martial arts, it seems."

"Right. So you want me to go out and get them?"

"Yeah. You know the route, right?"

"Right."  He ducked under his console, pulling out his 'gun box'.

"Three pistols and a SMG? You are a gun freak, aren't you?" Misato pointed at the box. "And just how much ammo do you have?"

"Yeah, yeah." Aoba slung the SMG over his shoulder and grabbed six clips. "I'm off."

---

"Dragon Leader to all transports. No anti-air defenses along the coast. Mission is a go. We have a clear path to Drop Point Charlie, 5 miles northeast of Tokyo-3."  

"Roger. All F-type transports continuing on course Charlie. Approaching waypoint Baker."

"Copy that. Assault force is moving on Matsushiro. Good luck on your end."

"We don't need luck. Those Tokyo-3 idiots won't know what hit them! All pilots check in and synchronize."

"Roger. Janshi units 1-8 synced and ready for combat.

---

ALERT! ALERT! UNIDENTIFIED EVA TRANSPORTS HAVE INVADED JAPANESE AIRSPACE! ALL PILOTS, PREPARE TO SORTIE!

Shinji's hands slammed down on the table he and Rei were sitting at as he heard the message, shoving himself up. Rei stood up quickly as well, and they sprinted for the locker room.

---

Asuka met them there, and the pilots stripped quickly, dignity forgotten in the urgency to change into their plugsuits. Never before had they been so rushed. Against the Angels, there was always time to prepare. Not so now.

Shinji was still settling the neural interface headband on his head as he sprinted towards the plug marked '01'. He jumped into the plugseat lying on the decking next to the plug. The crane placed it in the open top of the plug, and the sliding top hatch closed off Shinji's view of the outside world.  His hands dropped onto the butterfly handles, still accustomed to the feel. 

The plug jolted, and Shinji could tell that soon the plug would swirl around him while the gyro-stabilized chair stayed rock-steady. There. Soon LCL would start filling the plug. Now. He transitioned from breathing air to the strange orange liquid.  And it was time to sync.

The familiar light show flashed across the screens. A little meter showed him at 87.53%. The screens in the plug showed the third EVA bay. He could feel the tension on the EVA's body lessening as locks were released. From the feeling he was getting, he would start moving towards the catapults in roughly three seconds. Yep, there he went.

Three com windows opened, the other pilots filling two of them, while Misato took up the last one. "Okay guys, we've got eight EVA transports inbound. We know they can't be as good as you guys, but that's not good odds." Her image looked to the side, at something outside the camera's view . "Right." She looked back at them. "They're dropping outside the city, and seem to be forming groups of two. Asuka, we've got your EVA swords ready to deploy in the weapons building next to your emergence point but we don't have real katanas for you. Sorry. We'll get Techdiv on that as soon as this is over."

Shinji nodded. "Right. We'll engage using the old weapons. Anything else?"

"No. Sorry, but I don't really have a tac plan for you. But you guys are veterans. You'll do just fine."

"Roger. Unit 02 ready!"

"Unit 00 ready.

"Unit 01, ready."

"EVA LAUNCH!"

---

Janshi 1 and 2 crept forward, cradling pallet rifles in their EVA's arms. They were 02 style MPs, and each carried an advanced melee weapon in addition to the rifle. 1 had an axe, and 2 had a katana. The other pilots constantly badgered 2 about using a Japanese weapon, but he was good with it. Their pilot's heads swiveled from side to side, searching for a flash of red, blue, or especially purple. The original EVAs.

An alarm beeped in the entry plugs of the Chinese EVAs. Approaching heat source. A pair of artillery rockets slammed into 1's back, splintering armor, and driving him forward. Unit 02 rose from hiding, and emptied the other four rockets in her bazooka's clip at them. The inexperienced pilots forgot to even raise their AT fields, taking the full brunt of the attack. Asuka cursed. "Damn, didn't get a CFR pack. Shinji, Rei, they're all yours. And I think one of them has a proper katana."

"Thanks. Right, let's go Rei!" Unit 01 spun out from behind a hill, and started running at the two Chinese Evangelions. Shinji had armed himself with a pair of pallet rifles, one for each arm, and he held them at full extension, spitting fire and transuranic slugs at the enemy. This time the EVAs did put up their AT fields, not that it gave them more than a moment's respite. Shinji easily neutralized their fields, and kept on firing. The rifle fire blew the enemy EVAs' rifles apart, and turned most of their armor into memory, but it did not score any telling hits. A few wounds leaked blue blood, but nothing that would really help Shinji. 

Rei jumped over her hill with the jump jets mounted on her shoulder pylons as well as her EVA's muscles, firing shots from an upscale sniper rifle. One of her shots tore off 2's left shoulder pylon, spinning the other EVA to the ground. She landed and bounded into the air again, firing more shots.

Shinji's rifles ran dry and he tossed them to the side, burying them in the ground. 01's arms went up to it's shoulder pylons, and Shinji drew a pair of progressive knives, diving at 2. 2's pilot barely saw him coming, and was just bringing his EVA to its feet to counter when Shinji's first blade rent the EVA's chest, causing both pilot and biomecha to scream in agony. But that wound would not take the EVA down, not quickly enough. That was why Shinji's other knife flashed around in a flat arc, stabbing into the side of the EVA's head.

Explosive bolts blew, a huge slab of armor fell away, and an entry plug went rocketing out of the Chinese Evangelion's back.

"One down," reported Shinji, as he took the katana from the inactive EVA's hip. "And I've taken the katana."

"Touché!" crowed Asuka. "Another one down. That's two. Six more to go."

"Five," corrected Rei, as her carefully aimed shot blew apart 1's head, "Five more to go."

Shinji turned and headed towards the next group. The two EVAs fired on him with their rifles, trying desperately to neutralize his AT field, but it was no use. Shinji easily countered the rookie pilots' attempts to strip him of his protection, striding slowly towards them, holding his katana in his preferred grip: loosely, at the middle of the handle. He could almost see the pilots' shock when their rifles ran dry, their EVAs seemingly as impotent as infantry against his Unit 01. It was almost like he was an Angel now. A little flicker in the back of his mind distracted him, a flash of anger and the words 'Heaven's Justice' on a blood-smeared sheet of paper, and next he knew, the two aggressor EVAs were charging towards him with drawn blades. One had a Chinese broadsword, while the other had a spear. 

The spear-EVA thrust his weapon at Shinji viciously, and sloppily. Shinji simply sidestepped it and sliced off the spearhead before decapitating the EVA. He sighed. That had been far too easy.

The now-disabled EVA's consort swung its broadsword in a flat arc which Shinji jumped over, flipping over the enemy Evangelion. He kicked backwards, but the enemy EVA wasn't there. _Ah. Now this guy is better. _Shinji spun about, sword ready to block any attack, only to see that the pilot had overbalanced and was lying on the ground. "Or…not?" Shinji stabbed his katana through the EVA's back and twisted it, ripping it out the side. Though Shinji knew EVAs could take far worse damage and 'survive', he was willing to bet…yep, there went the entry plug. Shinji stepped back so that it would not hit him. "Two more down."

"Finishing up my last one," said Asuka, "Wondergirl, you want help?"

"Yes." Rei's voice was strained. "Shinji, some help would be a very good thing." Shinji looked over to where Rei was dodging sword swings from two EVAs. Amazingly, she was still getting in unarmed combat moves, even though they had the 'advantage'. Shinji's 01 was off and dashing as soon as he saw it. The first Chinese EVA never saw what hit him, so fast was EVA 01 moving. A full-scale Ryu Kan Sen Arashi cut the EVA into two pieces before 01 leapt into the air. It didn't actually separate until Shinji had come down in a Ryu Tsui Sen on the other EVA, cutting straight through the sword the other pilot had put up to block the strike. That Evangelion fell into two uneven horizontal pieces, as Shinji had scrupulously avoided hitting the entry plug.

"Are you okay, Rei?"

"Yes, just fine, Shinji."

Asuka walked up in Unit 02. "Nice work, baka," she whistled appraisingly,  "Hey, Misato, all enemy EVAs have been forcibly deactivated." 

"Good. Come on home. The JSSDF is just finishing up beating off an assault by the Chinese Army on Matsushiro. Guess they got a little more than they bargained for, huh?" The EVA pilots all nodded. "Well, we'll probably be attacking them soon, but get some rest for now." 

---

The first thing Shinji and Rei did when they climbed out of their entry plugs, still slippery with LCL, was to walk right over to the other, and give each other a big kiss. They broke off, wiped their mouths, and then went at it again. Asuka watched them, her mind a mixture of sadness and happiness. _They love each other. It's so obvious. And that means I have to let go. Shinji, I love you enough to know that this is what you need, and I can take two lost loves for the world's sake, and yours. _Asuka smiled and turned away, walking towards the locker room, not noticing that she had just referred to Klaus as a 'love'. _Now I just have to keep those two from sharing a shower. Misato would go nuts._

A/N: I'd say eight pages is pretty good. Sorry this took so long, but I've had tremendous writer's block on this. Anyway, sorry for the OOCness, but it's been a while since the series now, and they've had some pretty big things happen to them, as well as a lot of small things. So, next chapter, new EVA pilots, and the EVA Invasion of Manchuria! And perhaps a small glimpse of who is behind this all. Ja na!  


End file.
